Rosie's First Cut
by Nairobi-Harper
Summary: Rosie tells Tommy about how she got her first cut. (A birthday story for celrock.)


**Author's note:** A birthday story requested by celrock. Hope she enjoys!

May not be the best since I was dealing with a fever and headache around the time I was writing this, but I hope it's good enough.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Rugrats/All Grown Up. This wonderful series belongs to Klasky Csupo, and I own no part of it. Hazel is owned by HazelNutSwirl.

 **Rosie's First Cut**

It was a snowy winter day in Boston – some kids were outside playing in the snow and building snowmen. Others, such as a particular three-year old pink-haired girl who lived in the city, were sitting inside, doing something of their interest – in the case of this pink-haired girl, she was talking to her boyfriend Tommy Pickles on her elder sister Mary's iPad.

This girl's name was, of course, none other than Rosalind – though she was known by just about everyone as Rosie – Hall.

While on most winter days, the girl would be outside working on a snowman, perhaps with a few of her neighborhood friends, today the girl had woken up rather grumpy. She'd only gotten eight hours of sleep the previous night, which was nowhere near the amount a three-year old should get, and of course in addition to the fact it was already rather cold in her home, it most certainly didn't make Rosie too in the mood to go outside and build herself a snowman.

And so, earlier in that day, in a rare act of kindness, her older sister Mary offered to let her call her best boyfriend ever, Tommy Pickles.

"It's not like Krystal has a phone anyway and there aren't any new apps to download," Mary stated, "and you haven't called Tommy in a while, so you should probably call him before he thinks you're ignoring him."

Once her sister had noted that, Rosie's eyes had widened. She hadn't realized it up to that point, but she hadn't called her best baby boyfriend on Face Time in the past two weeks!

"Oh no," Rosie had exclaimed. "Mary, could you call him for me?"

With a sigh, Mary turned on her iPad, and set up Rosie's call with Tommy. Of course, since four-year olds (Tommy was a full year older than Rosie,) aren't quite the type who typically have Face Time accounts or email accounts, Mary always called Peter.

King Peter Albany was, of course, the king of his country, alongside a consistent babysitter of Tommy and his friends – Rosie and Mary had met him many times before, and thought the man to be nice enough.

Since it was 1 pm at this point in time, and Peter and Tommy had no plans today, Peter did of course answer the Face Time call.

"Hello?" Peter said. The man was sitting on the Pickles' couch, a brown clipboard and black pen in his right hand. "Oh, Rosie and Mary, it's you two!" He smiled. "Tommy has missed you both quite a bit – especially you, Rosie. The poor boy was a bit worried you were upset with him."

Rosie blushed, and Mary whispered to her, "I told you so" to which, of course, the three-year old scowled at her.

"Awe, well I'm sorry to hear that Peter," Rosie stated, still blushing. "I wasn't trying to ignore him, really. I've just been so busy and well" – She stopped herself. "You're a king, you probably get it. You've probably been really busy before too, right, and then you forgot to do the stuff that's the most fun to you and you kind of started to ignore your best boyfriend even if you didn't realize it – well, in your case it would be your girlfriend, but" –

"Yes, Rosie," Peter interrupted, "I understand what you're saying here. And I do apologize for interrupting you, but I'm certain that you'll have more time to talk with Tommy if I interrupt you here."

While she'd been a bit stunned and even upset with Peter at first for interrupting her, Rosie decided to calm herself down, and that she could understand Peter's view point. "Well, okay then. Can I see Tommy now then?"

Peter smiled. "Of course you may. I'll go get him right now. He's just finished his afternoon nap – he's always hated taking it, but hey, a young boy needs his sleep." With that, Peter disappeared from the room.

Not long after he briefly disappeared, Mary grinned, turning to her younger sister. "I told you that it was a good idea."

Rosie, having felt somewhat embarrassed by the whole thing and even somewhat jealous that she hadn't come up with the idea first, simply blushed in response. "Oh, be quiet."

Luckily for her, before Mary could consider this horridly embarrassing conversation, Peter and Tommy appeared on the camera of Mary's iPad.

'Thank the Heavens, they're here,' Rosie thought to herself.

"Hi Tommy!" Rosie exclaimed excitedly. However, this Tommy was not the bright and cheerful one she usually saw.

Today, he was sick – she could tell by the bags under his eyes and the tissue next to him - and while she could tell that he was attempting to look happy, the smile on his face was very forced.

'I hope he's not mad at me,' Rosie thought to herself. 'And if he is, I guess I couldn't blame him.'

"Hi Rosie," Tommy said. Immediately, Rosie felt worried – today, his voice was a lot raspier than it usually was.

"Tommy, are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

In the background, her older sister Mary yawned. "I think I'll go call Krystal or something. I don't want to make things awkward." With that, the eight-year old got up and left the room, her brown squeaky rain boots making the same shrieking noise they always did.

Peter also took this as his cue to leave. "Well, I suppose I'll be leaving you two alone now." With that, the brunette sat back on the couch, picking up the clipboard and resuming his work.

Tommy, on the camera, sat down, still looking just as tired and depressed as he had when he'd arrived.

Rosie, who was feeling a lot better than he was, gave him the same concerned look she'd been giving him before. "So, you never answered my question. Are you feeling okay? Because…" She bit her lip, trying not to make her comment sound too offensive or rude. "You don't exactly look like you're feeling too well, if you know what I mean Tommy…"

Tommy frowned. "Well, to be completely honest with you Rosie, I'm not really doing that well." Suddenly, the toddler took some tissue out of his overalls (the boy had grown out of wearing diapers,) and blew his nose. "I got a cold over the weekend, so I can't go outside and build a snowman with Chuckie and Phil and Lil and…" He groaned, interrupting himself. "My nose is all stuffy, and I'm real sorry if I sound like I'm complaining, but my throat hurts, and I don't wanna make you feel bad, but I thought that you were mad with me and that made me feel bad too…"

Rosie frowned, holding her head down in shame and not bothering to look at the screen anymore. It was just as she had suspected. "I'm real sorry to hear that, Tommy, and I'm sorry if you feel like I'm ignoring you." She sighed. "I guess I've just been kind of busy, and I woke up pretty grumpy this morning too – I didn't get too much sleep last night, and I honestly don't really even know why it took me so long to call you again – I like you, heck I think I'd even say I love you, but I don't know why I didn't call. I know that must sound stupid, but I really do hope you can forgive me."

When she lifted her head up again, she saw that Tommy was smiling at her.

"It's okay, Rosie," Tommy said. "Of course I forgive you. I understand, and I'm not gonna hold a grudge against you for somethin' like that, especially since you did call me back and you do seem sorry."

Rosie smiled. "Awe, thanks baby. I'll keep you more in mind in the future – I really do care, even if it doesn't seem like it sometimes, and me being a busy toddler doesn't excuse anything." Not wanting the conversation to get awkward, Rosie decided the two should find something to discuss aside from her boyfriend's cold, knowing that talking about it would only make him feel worse. "Hmm… now let's see, what do you think we should talk about?"

Tommy shrugged. "I dunno." He looked around his living room with a curious expression on his face, as though looking for something.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the camera, Rosie instead looked at the floor with a finger on her chin. She then looked up at her boyfriend, trying to observe anything about him but his cold that they could possibly talk about.

And, it was right then that she noticed something – something she hadn't noticed before. On his right elbow, her four-year old boyfriend had a Reptar bandage.

"Hey," Rosie suddenly asked, "how did you get that?"

With confusion, Tommy looked up. "What do you mean?"

"You have a Reptar sticky on your arm," Rosie noted. When she saw her boyfriend frown, she immediately knew it wasn't the best choice of topic, though the girl did have to admit that she was curious.

"Oh, this?" Tommy asked. "I got it last week at home since I fell over something." He shrugged. "Why'd you ask?"

"I thought it could be an interesting topic," Rosie responded. "Kinda reminds me of the time I got _my_ first cut."

"Really?" Tommy asked, an eyebrow raised. "I was one when I got my first cut. I got it at the park."

"You did?" Rosie asked. "Me too! It was the worstest thing that ever happened to me." Realizing that she was often the one who told Tommy tons of stories, she decided she'd give him a chance to tell his story as well. "What happened to you on the day you got your cut?"

Tommy put his finger on his bottom lip. "Well, it happened a long time ago, so my memory is kind of cloudy, but I got it when I was trying to save a baby bird from being stepped on by a man at the park. I was with Phil and Lil that day since Chuckie was visiting his grandparents, by the way. The man didn't mean to get so close to it, but it was standing right in the middle of the pathway, so I took it and put it back in its nest with its brothers. Then I noticed something though… my finger was bleeding, so I started crying and my mommy got me a Reptar sticky. I was real scared of sharp stuff after that, and I was scared I would get a cut – my cousin Angelica even told me that she had to get stitches once cuz she fell off her mom's exercise equipment, and I dreamed that I had stuffing coming out of me, or at least I think it was something like that. I was so scared of getting cut again that I even didn't try saving my dog Spike when these two guys were riding their bikes on the pathway near him." He took a breath, and then continued. "Well, eventually Chuckie came back, and I don't remember why, but we were on a hill, and he told us he got a pinwheel from his grandpa. I was so ascared of it that I tried pushing it out of the way, but then I ended up pushing Chuckie with it… well, when I saw him heading towards this big thorny bush, I rolled down the hill to save him. I got another cut, and I told Chuckie about my first one. When Chuckie almost took my band aid off, I got worried that it was gonna start bleeding again, but when it didn't, suddenly I wasn't so worried no more. Sure my other one was bleeding, but the incident helped me realized that it was gonna eventually heal."

"Wow, that's interesting," Rosie told him. "My story is kinda similar to yours, but sort of different."

"Well, I'd love to hear it," Tommy said.

"Sure," Rosie replied with a smile. "Here's how it all started…"

 **Rosie's POV**

Well, like I said, my story is kinda similar to yours Tommy, but while I tell it you're gonna see that there are a couple of parts that are kinda different.

My story starts on a hot summer day (obviously since it's winter now and it's real cold outside, the weather was a lot different.)

On this hot summer day, my mommy and daddy both had to work (just gonna say this real fast, but I've never understood why Mary gets the summer off and my mommy and daddy don't,) and my big sister Mary was on a play date with her bestest friend Krystal, so my grandma Stella (she was still alive since I was one,) decided she was gonna take me and my friend Bonnie to the park.

Now, you might be wondering something: what about my bestest friend Hazel and my other friend Courtney? Well, to answer your question, Hazel was out of town visiting her auntie and her grandparents, and Courtney was on her summer vacation right now with her parents (I think she went to Russia for her summer vacation.) And so, that left me and Bonnie alone with each other for the day.

While she walked us to the local Boston park, all that my grandma Stella talked about was stories from when she used to go to the park as a little girl (my grandma Stella _loved_ telling stories when she took us to the park – I'm so sad that she died last year, but Mary and mommy and daddy say she went to a good place and if that's what they say, I guess I believe it.)

"Oh, how I loved the park when I was little," Grandma Stella said as she took us there in our stroller. "Y'know, girls, when I was a little bit older than you, I met my very best friend here. Her name was… oh, now _what_ was it? – Kitty, I believe. We were opposites in every single way – oh, how we were always such opposites – that girl would scream over anything that wasn't a dolly (and sometimes she would even scream over those too,) and I was Stella Phillips, the bravest girl in the city…"

While my grandma Stella kept on telling us stories, Bonnie and I started to talk.

"I think we're gonna have a lot of fun today, Bonnie," I told her. "The park is always super fun!"

Bonnie gulped, and shrugged. "I dunno, Rosie, last time we went to the park a squirrel chased after me…"

I shook my head. "Bonnie, you gotta look on the bright side – that's what happened _last_ time. I promise you nothing bad is gonna happen to you this time – plus, that squirrel chasing after you was kinda fun, wasn't it?"

She looked at me like I was insane. "No, it wasn't 'kind of fun' Rosie! I had a animal chasing after me!"

I just shrugged my shoulders. " _I_ think it would be fun to have a animal chase after me."

She gave me the same look she usually did – a look like I was off my rocker – and shook her head. "Rosie, I hope this doesn't sound mean, but I think you and Hazel are both crazy, and today I'm starting to think that maybe that's just how you guys get along or something…"

I was about to reply when suddenly I looked up and I saw that we were _there –_ we were right at the park. The grass was as green as ever, there was tons of space to run on a place where there wasn't grass, and even though there were fences the park was still so big that the fences didn't really make it any less amazing.

"Well girls," my grandma Stella said, "looks like we're here!" She rolled us inside, and me and Bonnie looked around at the other kids who were playing, and when I say other kids I mean that there were a _lot_ of kids – some of them were around our age and some of them were a little bit older than us. I think I even saw a kid who was around Mary's age!

The point is though, just about every fun place that you can think of at that park was already being played on by some other kid.

"Rosie, what are we supposed to do here?" Bonnie asked me, looking bored already.

I looked around the park, and I had to admit that even I couldn't think of too much that we could do. Suddenly though, I looked over at one of the parts that wasn't covered with green grass, and decided something: I wanted to have a race.

I was about to tell Bonnie this, but it was just then that my grandma Stella took us out of the stroller.

"Why don't you girls go play over there?" she suggested, pointing to the place I'd been thinking about. "I'll be over here reading some of my magazines." She smiled dreamily. "Oh, how I enjoyed watching 'I Love Lucy'…" She walked over to the green benches, while me and Bonnie walked over to one of the spots without green grass.

"Rosie, you never said anything earlier," Bonnie told me. "What _are_ we supposed to do here?"

I grinned. "I have an idea."

Bonnie gave me a knowing look. "I hope it's a good one."

"Hmm," I said, "why don't we have a race to…" I looked straight ahead, and saw that there was a fence. "How about we race to that fence right there?"

Bonnie groaned. She's never liked running that much. "Rosie, do we have to?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Unless you have any ideas…"

Bonnie sighed, and that was what told me that she didn't have any different ideas.

I grinned. I've always liked running a lot, but none of my friends or even my big sister Mary likes it, so I usually never get to race anybody, which was why Bonnie agreeing made me real happy.

"Okay then!" I shouted. "Five, three, seventy, two, one… let's go!"

And then, on my feet, I started running as fast as I possibly could. I liked how the wind sort of went through my hair – after all, even though it's winter now it was summer then and so everything was hot out – and I liked how good the air felt on my skin. Even though I knew I was gonna be sweaty afterward, it still felt nice.

Well, at least it did for a moment. What happened right when I was about to reach the fence was the not-so-nice part.

Right as I was getting closer and closer to the finish line, I felt my foot make contact with something. It felt really rough on my skin – and then, I started to fall. I managed to put my hands flat on the ground before I could hit the ground face flat, though (and my mommy says I'm lucky that that happened, because otherwise she doesn't know what would have happened to me.)

I didn't know what was going on, but I heard Bonnie running over to me and my leg hurt. It hurt _real_ bad. I didn't know what was going on – nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I was trying to figure out what happened, so I looked down at my leg, and there it was.

The red stuff. The stuff Mary calls "blood." It was dripping from my leg and down on the sidewalk.

I started to shiver all over, even though it was hot outside and I felt sticky. I'll admit it to you Tommy – I was scared. _Real_ scared. More scared than I think I've ever been before.

I'd seen Mary get cuts before, but I never thought that much of it, I just knew that _I_ definitely didn't want one. Now that I'd had my first cut, though, I could see why Mary always looked so scared when it happened.

I started screaming at the top of my lungs to get my grandma Stella's attention.

Of course, even though she was old, she still knew a scream when she heard one, and so she looked up from one of her 'I Love Lucy' magazines, dropped it into her red purse real fast, and came walking over to me as fast as an old lady could.

When she came over to me, my grandma took out one of those First Aid kit thingies. 

"Calm down dear," my grandma Stella told me. "I always packed a First Aid kit for your big sister, I can use it on you, too." She took out a white bottle – I knew the first letter was "a" and it smelled like one of those weird chemical thingies, but I couldn't read the rest of it. "First we'll start with a little bit of alcohol." She uncapped the white bottle, took out a cotton-puff ball like thingie, poured the weird smelling stuff in the bottle on it, and then she put it on my leg. I screamed, and Bonnie just looked at me like she was real worried.

Suddenly though, my grandma took out something small that was shaped weirdly. I couldn't say I had ever really seen it before, but I recognized what was on it – a Dummi bear!

"This is called a band aid," my Grandma Stella explained. "You put it on cuts." After she put the band aid on me, she looked up at me. "I assume that this is your first cut."

My eyes widened, and since I hadn't had any cuts before that, I couldn't help but wonder what she meant by _first._ I was real worried that there would be more in the future (and there have been, but they aren't as bad as my first one was.)

"Why don't we go on home?" my grandma Stella suggested.

I looked to Bonnie to see her reaction – I thought she would be relieved since I could tell that she didn't really want to come in the first place, or that maybe she would be scared for me since I got that cut and I was bleeding and all, but instead I saw her looking at my Dummi Bears sticky with wide eyes.

I was about to ask her why she seemed so interested in it when, after putting the first aid kit back in her purse, my grandma Stella picked the two of us up and carried us over to our pink doubled stroller (as in, it would fit two people, not one.) She started to roll us out of the park, and then she started telling us the story of how Mary got her first cut.

"I remember when your big sister Mary got her first cut, Rosie," my grandma Stella began. "It was a fall day, and I don't think she was with me – or maybe she was, I don't remember too well – but she was with that babysitter of yours… Sally, I think her name was? No, Sandy, yes, Sandy sounds like the name…"

After those first few words that she said though, I stopped listening, and I'm pretty sure that Bonnie wasn't even listening in the first place, cuz she just kept on staring at my sticky.

Finally, even though I was trying to be nice and not say anything, I got annoyed with her. "Bonnie, why do you keep on staring at my band aid?"

She looked up at me with a smile. "Cuz it looks cool!"

Honestly, I was kinda surprised to hear her say that. Bonnie almost _never_ thought anything looked cool, and I would have thought that in a situation like this where she saw blood coming from my leg, the last thing she would call my Dummi Bears sticky is "cool."

I gave her a kind of irritated look. "No it doesn't!" I looked at it, and then sighed. "Well, I guess it does, but what happened _wasn't_ cool at all!"

Bonnie gave me a disgusted look, and I could tell that she was thinking about how I had fallen over that stick. "Yeah. That was kind of gross and scary, but those sticky's look kind of cool! I want one!"

I groaned at her. "Well if you want one, then you're gonna have to get a cut like I did, and trust me, the last thing you want to get is a cut." I closed my eyes as I thought of the memory. "You don't want to see red stuff – Mary calls it blood – coming straight out of your leg and onto the ground, and you don't want to have to scream for your grandma in front of _everybody,_ even the big kids."

Bonnie looked like she was sympathizing with me for a second, but then she went right back to looking down at my sticky. I groaned, and decided that there was nothing I could do to make Bonnie stop staring at my sticky, so I just accepted it.

Eventually, we got back to my place, and since my grandma Stella had keys to it, she just opened the door with her key and strolled us inside.

When we got inside, we saw that my mommy and daddy were home from work – that made sense, since I'm pretty sure we came home around the time that they were supposed to get off from work.

"Oh, hi Mom," my mommy said to grandma Stella.

"Hi Stella," my daddy said to her. "How was the park?"

Just as my grandma Stella was about to respond, my mommy looked down and saw that I was wearing a sticky on my leg since I was wearing a skirt.

"Oh no!" she exclaimed. "Mom, did Rosie get her…" She lowered her voice, and added, "First cut?"

My grandma Stella nodded. "Yep, it was her first, and I could most definitely tell that much." She shook her head. "I know she isn't much of a screamer, but that girl screamed louder than I've ever heard her scream today."

"How did it happen?" my daddy asked worriedly as my grandma Stella took me and Bonnie out of the stroller.

"The girls were running, and little Rosa here tripped right over a stick," my grandma Stella stated. (Sometimes my grandma would forget my name and call me something similar like "Rosa" or "Rosebud" like my daddy does, but the difference is that my daddy meant it as a nickname and my grandma didn't seem to actually know what my real name was.)

"Oh, poor Rosie," my parents said at the same time, and they gave me a look of sympathy.

"Oh, I do hope she'll be okay when Hazel comes over in the next two days," my mommy said.

My eyes widened. Hazel was coming over in _two_ days?

I gulped. I decided right then that I wasn't going to let Hazel see my sticky. After all, I was Rosie Hall, a brave girl, a girl who was always bubbly, a girl who liked to play sports and hated the idea of having to paint my nails when I was older. I wasn't the type of girl who got cuts. I wasn't the type of girl who cried that much – sure, I cried out of anger but never really out of sadness – and I didn't want to change how my bestest friend in the whole wide world thought of me at all.

"Here Shannon," my daddy told my mommy, "I'll go put the girls down in their playpen and you can talk with your mother."

"Alright then Terry," I heard my mother say as my daddy picked us up and walked us towards the other room. "Oh, and don't forget dear – Reggie is coming over in a few minutes!"

Bonnie and I looked at each other and gulped. This was not going to be a good day for either of us if Reggie was coming over.

You already know Reggie, Tommy – he's like… well, he's like _our_ Angelica, but I'm pretty sure that Reggie is worse than Angelica is, trust me on that.

My daddy set me and Bonnie down in the playpen.

"Well, you girls go ahead and have fun," he said, closing the playpen shut. Then he left the room, going on to do what I think was probably the type of work growed ups do.

Meanwhile, just as he left the room, my grandma Stella came in with her red purse.

"Oh, my, now I'll just be putting my purse in here with you girls if that's all right," my grandma Stella said, and she put her purse down next to us. "It's very hard to talk to someone when you're carrying a purse, after all." With that, she left the room, and once she left, I could hear her talking to my mommy.

After she left, Bonnie looked down at her purse with excitement that I don't think I've ever seen from her.

"I wanna see the sticky's," Bonnie claimed, smiling at my grandma's purse.

I gave her a dirty look. "Bonnie, _no._ This is my grandma's purse – we can't just go through it like that!" Honestly, I was kind of surprised at Bonnie's behavior. Bonnie was never really the type of person who searched through people's purses – usually _she_ was the one who was against that type of stuff.

Bonnie looked guilty for a second, but then she shook her head. "I'm not gonna take anything important out though Rosie, I promise." She looked at the purse excitedly. "I just wanna see those sticky's!"

I tried to intervene as Bonnie unzipped my grandmother's purse. "But Bonnie, those sticky's are for important stuff, you can't just use them because you wanna use them!"

By then though, it was too late to really tell her anything. My grandma's purse was already unzipped, and Bonnie already took out her First Aid Kit full of Dummi Bear sticky's. Bonnie dumped them all on the floor, and then she started to organize them a little bit (Bonnie was never the type of girl who left her stuff messy.)

After she organized them, Bonnie started putting the Dummi Bear sticky's almost everywhere on herself – she put them on her elbow, her hand, her forehead, right next to her eye, and in a lot more places.

"Bonnie," I said to her, "I don't think that's how a sticky is supposed to be used." I looked down at my leg since I was still wearing a sticky. "A sticky is supposed to be used if something is bleeding, not just cuz you like it, Bonnie."

Bonnie ignored me, however. "Wow, these sticky's are so cool, Rosie! I might even take a few home and put them on my toys…"

Just as she said this, however, my grandma Stella and mommy came walking into the room, talking.

"Oh, yes, I sure do remember how you used to sit on the couch, always watching 'I Love Lucy,'" my grandma Stella said – she interrupted herself right in the middle of the sentence when she saw all of the sticky's that were on Bonnie though. She gasped. "Girls, what do you think you're doing?"

I couldn't help but get a feeling that I was going to be blamed for this, too.

My mommy looked us over with a scowl. "Oh, girls, that's not what the sticky's are for!"

I turned to look at Bonnie with a raised eyebrow, and I whispered, "I told you so."

Bonnie hung her head down in shame, and I think that's what made my Grandma Stella and mommy less mad with her (or us, I guess, since they seemed to be mad at me too.)

My mommy sighed. "Oh, well, I suppose it's alright. I do have another First Aid Kit in the kitchen that you can use Mom, and I can just make another one."

"Oh, thank you dearie," my grandma Stella said to my mom.

"You're welcome, Mom," my mommy replied. "I'll go help Bonnie get all these band aids off and" –

My mom's next word was interrupted by the sound of our door bell. My mommy sighed.

"Well, never mind then," she said. "I guess I'll be getting the door. That must be Rhonda and Reggie."

Bonnie and I glanced at each other, gulping. We both knew that if Reggie saw my sticky – and even worse, if he saw how many sticky's Bonnie put on herself – he would never, ever, let us forget it. I would've done something, but I knew that there wasn't enough time, and so I tried to sit in a position that would make it so that it looked like I didn't have any kind of sticky on, and Bonnie started taking all her sticky's off as fast as she could.

"Oh, hello Rhonda," I could hear my mommy and daddy saying to Reggie's mommy in the living room. "Yes, we're doing well, thank you… how about you guys?"

Eventually, after the growed ups had a little bit of small chat, Reggie walked into the room with his mommy. By that point, Bonnie was taking off her fifth sticky.

"Why hello girls," Reggie's mommy said to us, but she didn't look too interested in anything aside from the fact that there were tons of sticky's on the floor. Just as my daddy walked in, Reggie's mommy asked him, "Where did they get so many bandages from, and why is there a First Aid Kit in the playpen?"

My daddy turned a pinkish color – me and Bonnie could tell that he was embarrassed. "Oh, well, you see, my mother-in-law left her purse in the playpen, and I guess the girls must have gotten into it, heh…"

Reggie's mommy gave him the most judgmental look I think I've ever seen, and then just sighed and shook her head. She looked down at Reggie. "Well, Reggie, I hope you have a good time here, and don't you join them in putting the Halls' bandages on yourself, you got it? If you do, mommy will give you a _very_ good talking to…"

Reggie nodded. "Why would I ever do that mommy? I'm a good boy!"

I almost felt like screaming at the moment he said that. Reggie is _far_ from being a good boy.

Of course, since she's a growed up and never knows what's going on, Reggie's mommy just looked down at him and smiled. "Of course you are, sweetie." She blew him an air kiss. "Have fun, my dear!" Then she turned to my daddy. "Take good care of him, and I highly recommend that you get that First Aid Kit out of the playpen before it turns into a horror story, you hear me?"

My daddy nodded, still blushing. "Yes, Rhonda, we'll most certainly be doing that…"

He followed her into the other room, and I heard the door shut.

"Take care, Rhonda!" my mommy and daddy shouted after her.

Of course, since Reggie's mommy had decided it was necessary to make such a big deal out of the fact that Bonnie used so many sticky's, Reggie obviously was going to tease us about it.

He grinned. "You two are in _big_ trouble."

Bonnie just looked down in shame, but I tried to stand up for us. "No we're not, Reggie! My mommy and my grandma are nice, we aren't in any trouble! I used a sticky cuz I had an actual cut, and Bonnie just thought they looked cool! Neither of us are in big trouble!"

Reggie seemed like he was about to continue teasing us, but then he considered something for a second. "Wait a minute – _you_ actually got a cut?" He grinned. "It's no wonder. Such a dumb baby lady like you was eventually going to get yourself hurt."

What he said made me feel really bad about myself for a second, but I got over it. "I'm not dumb Reggie, and I'm sure that… that… well, I'm sure that you've probably got a cut before too!"

I thought that would shut his attempts to scare us down, but it didn't – in fact, what Reggie said just got even worse.

"You're right, I did get a cut before," Reggie said. For some reason he was grinning. "I was in a kitchen when it happened, and my mommy was on the phone with one of her friends from college or something like that. I kept on asking her to give me a piece of the chocolate pie that she was making, cuz I was hungry and she wasn't doing anything about it. She just kept on telling me to be quiet since she was 'on the phone with Delores' or whatever that girl's name was." Reggie groaned. "Well, I got sick of waiting, so I climbed onto the kitchen counter and I decided that if she wasn't gonna get it for me, I was gonna get it for _myself_. I saw that she already had the pie cut up into slices – I wanted one, but the stupid thing was stuck to the pan! Well, I saw a knife right next to it, and then I remembered that that's what my mommy always uses to cut off pie for me. So I picked up the knife, and I was _going_ to cut myself a slice of pie, but that stupid knife must have been working wrong or something, because instead of cutting a perfect piece of pie for me, it went straight _through_ my forearm."

Me and Bonnie both knew how sharp knifes were – we'd seen our mommies use them before, and so what Reggie was describing sounded like a horror story to us.

"It did?" Bonnie asked. She looked real, _real,_ scared.

"Uh huh," Reggie said, nodding. He wasn't grinning anymore, but he still seemed satisfied by her reaction. "Blood started oozing out. _Tons_ of it. More than you seen in the movies!"

Thanks to having a big sister, I had seen a couple of those "movies" that he was talking about.

"Really?" I asked. I had to admit, this was even scaring _me_.

"Yep," Reggie said, grinning. "My mommy had to take me all the way up to the hospital, and I got stitches. I'll bet that if _you_ aren't more careful next time, you're gonna end up in a hospital bed with stitches, too."

I gulped, and for once, Bonnie stood up for me, even though she was really quiet.

"No she won't," Bonnie insisted. When she saw the look that Reggie was giving her, she gulped, but still she continued. "This is Rosie. It's… it's not gonna happen. Everybody gets a cut once… I'm sure I'll get one at some point…"

Reggie grinned. "Yeah, and when you do, you'd better hope you don't have to get stitches."

After the horrible story he told us, I was real glad that day when Reggie's mommy took him home (and, of course, even though he freaked us out, the only thing Reggie's mommy heard about was how he was "such a good boy" for us. If I could have told them what happened back then Tommy, I swear, Reggie wouldn't have gotten away with the amount of stuff he did…)

That night, after my daddy put me in my crib for bed, I had a bad nightmare. A _real_ bad nightmare.

In my nightmare, everything started out as a normal day, just like how things started when I got the cut. For some reason, I was in the kitchen that Reggie described earlier – in fact, I was actually in _his_ kitchen, not my kitchen.

I started climbing up the counter for some reason, just like he had – and then the most unexpected thing happened: I fell right _through_ the counter.

After I fell, I ended up at the same park that I'd gone to earlier that day, and Bonnie was next to me again.

"Let's have a race!" I shouted, just like I had the day before.

Me and Bonnie started running (and just like I was in real life, I was still a little bit faster than her,) when suddenly, I tripped over something and fell again. I looked down at my leg – it was bleeding just like it had in real life, but this time, there was three times as much blood. It was oozing out everywhere, and it covered a good part of the places without green grass.

Suddenly, Bonnie disappeared. I was the only one in the park. I looked down to see what I'd tripped over – it was a large, sharp, knife just like the one Reggie had described.

Suddenly, someone did appear. This person was Reggie, and he had the same grin he always wore on his face. He walked toward me.

"Well, you dumb baby lady," Reggie said, "looks like you're going to need _stitches_. I _told_ you to watch out."

I don't think I ever thought of things the same after _that n_ ightmare.

The next morning when I woke up, I was sweating. I kept on looking at my Dummi Bears sticky, and the whole incident from the park kept playing over and over again in my head, alongside the nightmare I'd had. The blood was the part that stuck out to me the most – I _hated_ the blood. I hated the fact that I'd ever gotten a cut. I never wanted to be close to anything that could make me bleed again.

By the time that I woke up, I knew Mary must have found out about my sticky, because I overheard her talking with my mommy about it when I woke up.

"Wow, Rosie got her first cut yesterday?" I heard her asking my mommy. "I must have missed a _lot_."

I was lucky enough that Mary had another play date with Krystal (since this was the summer, she and Krystal were trying to get as many play dates in before the school year started,) so she didn't ask me any questions about it.

By the time that Bonnie got to my house (my mommy invited her over again,) I still just couldn't seem to stop thinking about that incident from yesterday. I knew that it was a new day and I should move on, but for some reason I just… couldn't.

Just like she had yesterday, Bonnie's mommy brought Bonnie over around the afternoon. When she came, I could hear from the other room that her mommy wasn't very happy with her.

"Shannon, Terry, I am _so_ sorry that Bonnie acted up so badly when she was here yesterday," Bonnie's mommy apologized. "I just really can't believe that she actually put all those bandages from your mother's First Aid Kit on herself Shannon!" Her voice started to sound a little bit calmer. "I gave her a good talking to yesterday, and I explained to her that she shouldn't ever be going through anyone else's purse when it doesn't belong to her. I believe that she's learned her lesson, and is very sorry."

"Thank you for the apology," I heard my daddy tell her. "We forgive Bonnie, and Rosie's grandmother isn't here today, but if she were, something gives me a good feeling she'd forgive her, too."

"I agree with my husband," my mommy said.

Even though I wasn't there, I could hear the smile in Bonnie's mommy's voice. "Oh, thank you so much you two, especially for having her over here after what she did yesterday." She let go of Bonnie's hand. "Now you be a good girl for Rosie's parents, and don't go searching through anyone's purse today unless you want a ten-minute timeout."

Not too long after that, I heard the door close, and my daddy came in carrying Bonnie. He put her down in the playpen. When he did, Bonnie looked kind of upset.

"My mommy got mad at me for putting on all those sticky's," Bonnie explained. "I just don't really get why I'm not allowed to. I mean, they look so cool! How come you can only wear them if you have a cut?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I think they're supposed to help your cut heal or something."

Bonnie groaned. "Well, either way I think it's kind of dumb. They seem more like colorful accessories than something you would use to heal a cut." She sighed. "So, what do you wanna do today?"

I shrugged my shoulders. I honestly had no idea what I really _did_ want to do – that one memory I had of getting my cut kept playing over and over again in my head, and it was like it was blocking out all my important thoughts.

"Well Rosie, we've gotta find something to do, and you're usually the idea person," Bonnie reminded me.

When I shrugged again, I think we both knew that today really just wasn't the day to ask _me_ of all people for ideas.

And so, since Bonnie's never been the type who has that many ideas anyway, we just kind of sat there bored (or at least she did – that memory of how I got my cut still wouldn't stop playing over and over again in my head.)

"Hmm, well why don't we color right over there?" Bonnie asked, pointing to one of the spots without green grass.

I gulped.

"Uh, no thanks Bonnie," I said. "Why don't we just color in the green grass?" She looked at me like I was crazy.

"But Rosie, the grass is always wet and it will make our paper wet, you know that," Bonnie told me. "We really should color in one of the spots without green grass."

"No," I insisted. "We'll color where the green grass is."

Bonnie sighed – she knew there was no point in arguing with me, so we went over to the green grass and started to color.

While we were coloring, we saw a group of runners come running into the park – they ran from where we had started running yesterday all the way up to the fence. They took a thirty-second break, and then went right back at it.

Suddenly, we saw that those runners were coming back – and worst of all, a doggie was running right up to them, and the stick that I'd tripped over the day before was in a spot pretty close to where it was before.

I gulped. I stood up, and was about to start walking toward the doggie, but then I stopped myself. I _wanted_ to save that doggie, but after tripping over that stick, I didn't really feel like I even _could_ anymore.

I started to feel weak in the legs. I hated that I wasn't doing anything – a part of me was screaming at myself to go ahead and save that doggie, but another part of me was saying that it was too risky.

"Well, aren't you gonna do anything?" Bonnie asked me. She looked really worried for the doggie.

I didn't say anything back. Even though I hardly realized it at the time, I just sort of stood there and stared at the doggie without saying anything.

I got lucky when, right before the doggie reached the stick, its owner came to stop it.

"Down boy!" the owner, who was clearly in his early thirties, shouted. "Sit!" The doggie must have been pretty well trained, because it obeyed.

The runners stopped right in the front of the stick too. One of them (he looked like he was younger than both my parents,) picked up the stick.

"What's this doing in the middle of the pathway?" I heard him mumble. He cursed to himself, and then threw the stick in the bushes.

The runners all waited for the man to walk away with his doggie. Once he did, they started running again, and Bonnie gave me a look of disgust.

"Rosie, why didn't you do anything?" Bonnie asked me. She sounded really shocked. "That doggie could have gotten really hurt!"

I felt more guilty than anyone could have possibly imagined, but I tried not to think about it. "I dunno, Bonnie. I guess I just didn't feel like it today…"

My daddy must have noticed the look on my face, because he came walking over to us.

"I think we ought to go home," he suggested. "That incident with the dog must have really scared you kids."

My daddy put us back in the stroller. As we rode back to my house, me and Bonnie didn't say a word to each other.

Apparently we got back on time, because around the time we arrived Bonnie's mommy was having tea with my mommy.

"Oh, we must be going," Bonnie's mommy said when she noticed Bonnie. She looked up at my daddy. "I sure do hope Bonnie was a good girl today for you, Terry."

"Oh, yes, she was," my daddy promised. "Rosie just didn't seem too interested in the park. She hasn't seemed too interested in much of anything lately after the…" He lowered his voice… "The cut."

As my daddy took me out of the stroller, I tried to pretend that I hadn't heard a word that they'd said.

"I think Bonnie had a lot of fun today," Bonnie's mommy said (by that point, Bonnie was taken out of the stroller along with me.) "We'll be bringing her over again tomorrow. Thanks so much you two!"

"We always love having her over," my mommy and daddy said. With that, the door was closed and Bonnie left with her mommy.

The day after _that_ , I had Bonnie over at my house again in the morning. We were drawing pictures in my playpen – after all, the playpen was something I recognized, and my mommy and daddy kept that thing pretty organized, so I knew wasn't gonna trip over anything in there.

I was drawing a picture of a rainbow – thinking about rainbows stopped me from thinking about my sticky, and at that point, I was happy to have anything in my life that stopped me from looking and thinking about my sticky, because looking at my sticky just reminded me of how I had gotten that cut at the park, and how bad it was bleeding, and…

Even now, it kind of makes me a little bit uncomfortable to think and tell you about, Tommy. I think it really was one of the worst things of my one-year old life.

Bonnie, on the other hand, was drawing a picture of her mommy. Bonnie likes her daddy and all, but I think it's definitely easy to say that she gets along best with her mommy – I think I get along better with my daddy though.

While we were drawing though, something bad happened. Something _real_ bad happened. (Or at least that's how I was feeling at the time.)

I heard my mommy talking on the phone to Hazel's mommy.

"Do you hear that?" I asked Bonnie.

"Hear what?" Bonnie asked. Her eyes widened. Bonnie is ascared of a lot of stuff, and the thing she is the most scared of is hearing any sort of voices.

"My mommy is on the phone talking to Hazel's mommy," I told her worriedly.

She looked at me confused. "And? Isn't that a good thing?"

I shook my head, biting my lip. "No, it's not a good thing! Hazel can't know about my cut Bonnie, she can't, and I know that my mommy is gonna tell her mommy and then Hazel's mommy is gonna tell Hazel, and then…" I groaned. "Point is Bonnie, we have to 'rupt my mommy's phone call 'fore she tells Hazel's mommy about the cut I got on Wednesday!"

The one thing I'd decided was that I most definitely wasn't gonna tell Hazel. I trusted Hazel, but Hazel always thought of me as the bravest one-year old around – if she knew that I really wasn't Rosalind Hall, the bravest and toughest girl around these parts, well then, I would feel real embarrassed, that's for sure…

Bonnie gave me a look of confusion. "But Rosie, why don't you want me to tell Hazel? You guys are the bestest friends in the whole wide world, and I don't think it's right for you to just not tell her about something that happened to you and" –

I shushed her (I feel bad about doing that now, and trust me, I apologized to Bonnie for it since then since it was kinda rude after all.) I was too embarrassed to even really want to talk about it.

"Look Bonnie, point is that Hazel just can't know," I told her. I know that I didn't look very happy when I was telling her this.

Bonnie sighed. "Well okay then, Rosie, if that's the way you want things to be then that's fine. I just really do hope that you're not going to have me join in with you for whatever you're planning" –

By then though I was hardly listening, because I'd already started making a plan in my head. "Bonnie, I know exactly what we're gonna have to do!"

Bonnie groaned. "Oh no…"

I stood high and tall. "We're gonna have to escape from this play pen, Bonnie, and we're gonna go and stop my mommy from telling Hazel's mommy everything!"

Almost right after I said that, I heard my mommy starting to say something to Hazel's mommy. "Oh, yes, Rosie and Bonnie did indeed go to the park yesterday. My mother took the girls there, and – oh, yes, of course we'd be willing to have Hazel over tomorrow! Hazel has always been such a lovely girl, and Rosie missed her so much yesterday, I'm sure she would love to see her again…"

I gulped. We were running out of time. "Let's go, Bonnie!"

"Or," Bonnie suggested more quietly, "we could just cry so that your mommy will come in here. Doing _that_ sure would be a lot faster."

My eyes widened, and I turned around to Bonnie, looking her straight in her brown eyes. "That's perfect, Bonnie! Let's do it!"

Bonnie growled. "I shouldn't have said that, should I have? Now your mommy is gonna be mad at us, and…"

Suddenly, I started screaming right in the middle of her sentence. I wouldn't exactly call it crying, more of just screaming – Bonnie started to join in with me almost as soon as she heard me doing it.

I could hardly hear over the sound of our screams, but I think my mommy told Hazel's mommy that she would be right back or something like that.

My mommy practically came running in, and she looked really concerned. She picked both me and Bonnie up. "Girls, what's wrong?"

I could tell that Bonnie was about to stop, but I gave her a small cue to continue screaming. We hadn't gone over the plan too well, but my plan was for us to keep on screaming until my mommy finally decided to get off the phone with Hazel's mommy.

It made me feel kind of guilty thinking about it, especially since neither of us actually really even needed my mommy right now, but I was gonna get as much done as I possibly could to make sure that Hazel didn't find out about my cut.

"Girls, what's wrong?" my mommy asked again. "Hazel is coming over, if that cheers you girls up any…"

Her telling us Hazel was coming over made me more surprised and scared than it did happy. I knew I should feel happy about the fact that I was gonna see my bestest friend, but the one thing I think I forgot to mention to you Tommy is that I was wearing a skirt, and so there was no way in heck that Hazel wasn't gonna see my sticky and ask questions (which would lead to me having to tell her that I got a cut, and that whole thing would be a mess.)

I started screaming louder than I had been before, and tried to glance around to see if there was any sign for her that I wanted to wear pants instead of a skirt. I was lucky enough to see that Mary had left a pair of her pants on the couch, so I pointed to those and stopped screaming.

My mommy turned around with a confused expression – when she saw that I was pointing to Mary's pants, she scoffed.

"I thought I told her to pick those up," my mommy said angrily. She sighed when she saw that I was still pointing to the pants. "Rosie, I already know that Mary left those there, you don't need to tell me."

'Argh, why doesn't she get it?' I thought to myself. I just kept on pointing at the pants until my daddy came in.

"Are the girls giving you trouble?" my daddy asked.

My mommy nodded. "Rosie keeps on pointing to Mary's pants that I told Mary to pick up _yesterday,_ but I don't know what she wants."

My daddy observed us for a second, and then he turned back to my mommy. "Call me crazy Shannon, but I think she wants to wear a pair of pants."

My mommy's eyes widened. "In _this_ weather? Oh, now Terry, surely you must be wrong…"

However, the fact that I was nodding my head up and down and smiling at what my daddy said differently.

When my mommy sighed, my daddy said, "Don't worry Shannon. I'll go get her some pants."

I could tell that my mommy was about to ask why Bonnie was still screaming in that case, so I cued to Bonnie to stop screaming too.

My daddy came back with a pair of blue pants (I don't wear pants that much – they make me itchy and uncomfy, but I was willing to do almost anything to make sure my bestest friend in the whole world didn't know I had a cut,) and he and my mommy took me into the other room to help me put them on while Bonnie sat in the playpen alone.

When they were done, my daddy put me back in the playpen with Bonnie. I gave Bonnie a thumbs up and a smile.

"I think things are going to work out," I told her.

By the time that my mommy got back to the phone (I realized that she must have had Hazel's mommy on hold for a pretty long time,) she seemed pretty tired.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not very much in the mood to talk right now," I heard my mommy tell Hazel's mommy. "Oh, no, it has nothing to do with you – the girls are just a bit upset, is all, and I don't know what's wrong." I heard her sigh. "Yes, we would still love to have Hazel over today."

My reaction to overhearing this was better than my last reaction was – this time, I was pretty happy at first. After all, my bestest friend was coming after I hadn't seen her for two whole days! I should have been happy!

While we waited for Hazel to come, me and Bonnie continued our drawings from yesterday (they had gotten wet, which is something I don't think I did mention, but they were kinda starting to dry up.)

Eventually, around 2 pm, we heard the door ring, and we knew that it was Hazel and her mommy.

While Hazel's mommy made small chat with my daddy, my mommy brought Hazel in and put her in the playpen.

"We're going to have a fun day today girls," my mommy said. "We'll be going to the park – Rosie, Bonnie, this will be your third time in a row for the week, but this will be Hazel's first."

And, after having said that, my mommy left the room. This left us to talk amongst ourselves.

"Oh, hi Bonnie, hi Rosie!" Hazel exclaimed when she saw me. She looked down at my pants weirdly. "Rosie, it's really hot outside today. Why are you wearing pants?"

"Oh, uh, no reason," I replied nervously. She gave me a weird look, and that was when I started feeling guilty – and when I say that, I mean that I felt _really_ guilty all of a sudden, just for even keeping a secret from her.

Hazel smiled, nodding. "Uh huh! My auntie told us tons of cool stories about when she was a kid, and she taught me about this really cool game she and her friends used to play called 'Sticks'!"

I went completely pale when Hazel mentioned that. "What?"

"Sticks," Hazel repeated. "It's a game that my auntie taught me! It's so cool, guys! Why don't we try it out when your mommy takes us to the park ,Rosie?"

I shrugged. "Eh. I dunno, Hazel…"

"You'll love it Rosie, I'm sure," Hazel said, smiling.

Just then, my mommy walked in, carrying her black purse with a grey zipper. "Well girls, I'm not too sure about you, but I think that we're all ready to go now." I hardly even noticed that Hazel's mommy was standing right behind her – it seemed that she was gonna come along, too.

While the growed ups walked us to the park, Hazel's mommy took Hazel in her own stroller, while me and Bonnie still rode in the double stroller. As we rode there, Hazel wouldn't stop talking about "Sticks."

"The game is just so cool!" Hazel exclaimed. "I can't believe my auntie didn't teach it to me earlier. It's kind of like a pirate game, but with sticks, I guess, and it's real fun!"

When we got to the park, Hazel's mommy and my mommy took all three of us out of the stroller. Once they'd done this, Hazel's mommy drove the two strollers over to the benches where she and my mommy were gonna sit at.

"We'll be over here, girls," Hazel's mommy told us, setting her purse down next to her. She took out a book with a whale on the front cover – it looked like it was a pretty long one.

"Be good, girls," my mommy said, taking a seat next to her. She took out an "I Love Lucy" magazine (it's her favorite show if you couldn't tell,) and started reading.

Once we got there, Bonnie, Hazel, and I went to the other side of the park that I don't think I mentioned before –this was the side that was basically right outside the playground, but still pretty close to where the growed up potty's are.

"So, do you guys want me to teach you how to play Sticks?" Hazel asked me and Bonnie.

"I do!" Bonnie said, "so long as it's not dangerous."

"It's not, trust me," Hazel said, smiling. "It's kind of like one of those pirate games. In fact, it pretty much _is_ a pirate game."

"No, I don't wanna play sticks," I told Hazel, shaking my head. Just looking at a stick kept on making me think about how I tripped over one, and how much blood there was.

Hazel looked really hurt after I said that, and I could tell that something was wrong.

Finally, Hazel scowled at me for the first time that day. "Look Rosie, I don't know if you're mad at me or something like that, but why don't you want to play anything with me and Bonnie?" She gave me a concerned look. Do you feel sick?"

Bonnie gave me a knowing look, but I gave her a "don't mention it" (my cut of course) kind of look back so that she wouldn't say anything to Hazel.

"No, I don't feel sick," I told Hazel. "I'm just… not really in the mood to play today." I sighed. "I think I'm gonna go sit over there and relax."

Hazel gave me a strange look. "Really Rosie, are you sure that you aren't sick? You've never acted like this before…"

I gave her an irritated look. "Yes, Hazel, I'm _fine_." I started to walk away, and as I did, I heard her say back in a more irritated tone, "Well you don't have to be so mean about it…"

Then she and Bonnie started playing sticks, all while I just sat and watched them. I felt absolutely miserable. I knew my bestest friend thought that I was being a real fun sponge, and I honestly wanted to tell her about my cut, but I didn't know what she would think of me if I told her about it.

Eventually, Hazel and Bonnie must have decided that playing with sticks was getting boring, because Hazel announced that she wanted to go on the playground.

"Let's go over to the playground," Hazel suggested, but I could tell that she was talking more to Bonnie than she was to me. "There shouldn't be too many big kids around." Then, she looked over to me. "We're going over to the playground if you want to come, Rosie." She still looked pretty irritated with me.

"Okay," I said. While they walked over to the playground, I decided that I was gonna try to stop being such a fun sponge, and maybe try to join them.

By the time that I got over there, they were taking turns on the slides. I'd always liked the slides a lot, but Mary says that she's too tall for them to be fun now or something like that.

"I wanna go upside down," Hazel announced right around the time I got onto the playground.

"I don't think that sounds too safe, Hazel," Bonnie said, looking concerned.

"I'm sure that I'll be fine, Bonnie," Hazel assured her. "I'm only gonna try it out once."

I didn't intervene, because the way I thought of it, if Hazel was gonna do it only once, she probably wasn't gonna end up hurt. Boy, was I wrong.

Hazel ran over to the longest slide that she could. This was one of those tube slides, the type that had a top covering it.

Bonnie and I just stood at the entrance of it (you know, the place where you stand before you go in.) Bonnie still looked pretty concerned while Hazel got into the position she needed to to slide downwards.

"Hazel, are you sure this is safe?" Bonnie asked her a second time.

"Of course I'm sure," Hazel responded. "Bonnie, do a countdown for me!"

I felt kind of hurt that she hadn't asked me, but I tried to push the feeling of hurt down.

"Well, okay then," Bonnie said, and she glanced at me as if she knew that I wasn't too happy about it. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1…"

Right at the 1, Hazel began sliding down.

When she started sliding down faster and faster, I heard her screaming.

"Hazel, are you okay?" I shouted to her. When I heard no response, I didn't hesitate – this was my _bestest_ friend in the whole wide world. I wasn't going to waste my time considering what could go wrong and what couldn't – I had a friend in need, and I was going to save her. I jumped right in, beginning to slide down myself.

"Rosie, don't do it!" I heard Bonnie shout, but I ignored her.

As I got farther down, I started to see why she'd been screaming so loudly – the middle part of the slide was really slippery, and even I wanted to scream for a second, but I held my breath. Being scared wasn't going to help out either of us in this situation. I continued sliding down, trying not to feel scared – it was extremely dark, but I tried my best to see where Hazel was going.

Right before she could reach the end and fall straight into the pile of sand, I grabbed onto Hazel's feet hard enough that we both stayed right there in that exact position.

"Are you okay?" I immediately asked Hazel. However, even in the dark, I could see that she was staring at my leg. When I looked down, I realized why – while I was sliding down, my pants leg must have gotten pulled up enough so that Hazel was able to see my sticky.

"Rosie, you got your first cut?" Hazel asked me. "When? Why… why didn't you tell me?"

I looked at her, feeling guilty.

"Oh, and thank you for saving me, but you can let go of my feet now," she told me. When I let go, she immediately grabbed the end of the slide and turned around. "You never answered my questions."

I frowned at her. "Yeah, I got my first cut. I got it two days ago at this same park actually" -

Suddenly, she interrupted me. "And you also got your second."

I gasped, and looked over to see that she was right. This time it was my left elbow that was bleeding.

"Oh no," I whispered.

"You don't have to be scared," Hazel told me. "I've gotten a couple of cuts before."

"Yeah, but… but Reggie said I was gonna need stitches for this one!" I exclaimed.

"Rosie, when have you ever had any reason to believe what Reggie's said?" she asked me. "This is _Reggie_ we're talking about. Plus, your elbow is probably bleeding the same amount that your leg was last time. It's nothing a sticky can't fix."

"But my first sticky hasn't fixed my leg!" I exclaimed.

"How do you know that?" she asked me. She started to take the sticky off my leg.

"No Hazel, don't!" I insisted.

"Rosie, you said you've had it on for two days," Hazel reminded me. "Your cut is probably just fine now."

"No, don't" – I started to insist, but then Hazel took it off, and something amazing happened… it wasn't bleeding anymore. It wasn't even pink anymore. It was just black now.

"All that it is now is a scab," Hazel told me. "I have a couple." She showed me one of her elbows, and one near her knee. "See? You don't need a sticky for a scab."

I looked at my bleeding elbow. "I do need a sticky for this, though."

Hazel nodded. "Let me stop blocking your way then so you can get a sticky." As she moved herself out of the way, I finally saw why she'd _really_ started screaming – someone had left actual _glass_ (a tiny bit, but still glass either way,) right at the point where kids would get off the slide.

"Did you guys notice the glass before?" I asked her.

Hazel shook her head. "No. I only noticed when I went upside down, since I got to see that it was kind of underneath the wood chips with my eyes."

I got off as carefully as I could, and when I did, I saw Bonnie, who had tears in her eyes, my mommy, and Hazel's mommy were running over to us.

"We couldn't find you two anywhere!" Hazel's mommy exclaimed. "Bonnie seemed very worried about you girls." Suddenly, even though she was lucky enough not to step on it, Hazel's mommy noticed the glass right next to the slide. "Oh, my dear goodness!" She turned to my mommy. "Shannon, did you notice that there's actual _glass_ right next to this slide? And to think that this is a children's park!" Hazel's mommy was nice enough to pick up the glass. "Oh, now I'll just go ahead and throw this way!"

My mommy looked at the glass. "Wow. If that glass had stayed there any longer I can't imagine what would have happened to the girls…" Suddenly, she noticed that my elbow was bleeding. "Oh, my, Rosie. Seems that you've gotten your second cut." She bent down quickly and got her First Aid Kit out of her purse. She applied the alcohol to my elbow (which stung a lot, but I tried to be brave about it,) and then she gave me another Dummi Bear sticky. She glanced down at my pants leg, which was still kind of pulled up. "Oh, and looks like your first cut healed Rosie." She smiled. "Good."

Hazel's mommy came back right around then, still looking disgusted from having had to see the glass. "Well Shannon, this has been a long day, that's for sure. I think we'd best be getting home, and calling Bonnie's mom to pick her up (unless she'd like to stay a bit longer that is.)"

My mommy nodded in agreement, and this time, she put Hazel and I into a double stroller, and let Bonnie go into Hazel's stroller, though Bonnie was still close enough to us so that we could talk as a group.

When our mommies began riding us out of the park, Hazel mentioned something: "Rosie, you never _did_ explain to me how you got that cut."

"Oh, she found out?" Bonnie asked me, looking surprised.

Hazel eyed Bonnie for a second, and then added something to what she'd originally said: "Oh, and I also want to know why you didn't want to tell me at first about your cut."

I gulped at that last part, but nodded. "Well, it all started at the park two days ago…"

I told her the story while we rode home, and I decided that never again was I going to keep anything a secret from Hazel. Hazel and Bonnie eventually went home, too.

And well, that's the story of how I got my first cut.

 **End of Rosie's POV**

"Thanks for telling me your story Rosie," Tommy said, smiling genuinely for the first time that day. He blew his nose again. "Even though I still have a cold, it really helped cheer me up!"

Rosie smiled. "You're welcome, Tommy, and I hope you feel a lot better. Having a cold must be no fun."

As though on cue, Peter suddenly got up from the couch and walked over to the two. "Unfortunately, I believe my iPhone is not charged enough at this point – why, it's only at 14%!" He sighed. "As much as I'd love for you two to continue your conversation, I'm afraid that the conversation may have to end here thanks to the fact that my phone will die soon if it is not put on the charger."

"Actually Peter," Tommy said on the other side of the camera, "Me and Rosie were getting finished up anyways." He smiled. "Thanks for letting me use your phone, though." He then turned to look at Rosie. "And most of all Rosie, thanks for calling me! I really liked talking to you."

Rosie smiled back. "You're welcome Tommy – I liked talking to you, too, and I hope your cut heals."

Tommy nodded, glancing down at his Reptar bandage before looking back up at his girlfriend. "Well then, I guess this is goodbye for now. I'll try to call you as soon as I can."

"Same here," Rosie responded. "Bye-bye."

The two waved to each other. With that, King Peter Albany ended the Face Time call for the two by clicking on the proper button.

Rosie called for her older sister. "Mary, could you close out Face Time for me on your iPad?"

Mary came walking in. "Yep." She closed off for her little sister. "Welp, you can go do whatever you want to now, and I hope you had fun talking to that kid."

Rosie smiled. "I had tons of fun. We told each other how we got our first cuts, and I told him about how Bonnie put all the sticky's on herself!"

Mary smiled, nodding. "Sounds fun."

Suddenly, the girls' mother came in. "Girls, it's time for lunch!"

"Coming mom!" the girls shouted in unison.

And, with that, the girls went to go eat their lunch.

 **Author's Note:**

Wrote this last part with a headache and fever. Hope you all enjoyed, and I will try to edit at a time when I'm not sick if you guys don't like it. Thanks for reading guys, and I hope celrock's birthday on December 14th goes pretty well.


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